US Attorneys Update – First Barack Obama Administration

U.S. Attorney Leura Garrett Canary's office sent former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D) to prison on corruption charges, in a case that Democrats have alleged was political. Canary is married to GOP political operative Bill Canary, who was reportedly close to Karl Rove. She recused herself from the Siegelman case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin. Canary resigned on May 27, 2011.

George Beck Jr. was a white-collar defense lawyer at Capell & Howard and former state prosecutor. Beck was the third lawyer that former Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) recommended for the job. The White House had eliminated defense lawyers Joe Van Heest of Montgomery and Michel Nicrosi of Mobile, who ran into opposition from the stateâ€™s Republican senators.

Alice Martin was one of the more controversial of the Bush U.S. Attorneys. Her office unsuccessfully pursued charges against former Gov. Don Siegelman (D), though Siegelman was ultimately convicted in Alabama's Middle District of charges that he appointed health care executive Richard Scrushy to a state board after Scrushy donated money to a state lottery campaign Siegelman supported. Siegelman and Scrushy have mounted public relations and legal campaigns arguing the cases against them were politically motivated.

Joyce Vance was named interim U.S. Attorney on June 19 after her nomination was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. She was previously the Chief of the Appellate Division in the Northern District of Alabama. She started at the U.S. Attorney's office in 1991. Her husband, Robert Vance Jr., is a judge in the Jefferson County, Ala., Circuit Court. She was recommended by Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.). She was sworn in Aug. 27.

Deborah J. Rhodes was one of the people named by then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff Kyle Sampson as a possible replacement following the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys by the Bush Administration in 2006.

Kenyen Brown was a staffer on the House ethics committee on Capitol Hill. Brown was not one of the two candidates recommended to the White House by Rep. Artur Davis, the senior Democrat in the Alabama congressional delegation. Davis's first choice was Vicki Davis (no relation), an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Alabama's Southern District. Davis's second choice was Patrick Sims, a civil litigation attorney at Cabaniss, Johnston, Gardner, Dumas & O'Neal in Mobile, Ala.

Karen Loeffler, 52, was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska for 20 years and previously served as the office's interim U.S. Attorney. From 1986 to 1989, she was an assistant district attorney in Alaska and served on detail as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney. From 1985 to 1986, she was an assistant attorney general in the Oil and Gas Division of the Alaska attorney generalâ€™s office. From 1983 to 1985, she was a litigation associate at Faegre & Benson in Minneapolis.

George W. Bush White House officials tried to sink Diane Humewtewa's nomination in 2007. But Humetewaâ€™s sponsor and former boss, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), refused to budge, leading to her appointment as a U.S. Attorney. Humetewa resigned effective Aug. 2, 2009.

John S. Leonard was nominated by President Barack Obama on March 21, 2012. He previously served as a Superior Court judge in Pima County, Az. Before taking the bench, Leonardo served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Arizona from 1982 to 1993. He was an AUSA in the Northern District of Indiana from 1973 to 1982. Leonardo also worked as an assistant state's attorney for Prince George's County, Md., from 1972 to 1973. He would fill the vacancy left by Dennis K. Burke, who resigned last summer amid the Fast and Furious scandal. Burke was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed as the U.S. Attorney in Phoenix on Sept. 15, 2009. Burke resigned on Aug. 30, 2011 as part of an Obama administration house-cleaning following revelations about a botched gun-tracing program called Operation Fast and Furious. Burke's office oversaw the program, run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which intended to track guns purchased in the United States by straw buyers acting as middlemen agents for Mexican drug cartels. However, ATF lost track of many of the weapons, two of which were found at the scene of a shootout in Arizona with cartel members that left a U.S. Border Patrol agent named Brian Terry dead. Acting ATF Director Ken Melson also lost his job in the shake-up. Burke was previously a rising star in the Democratic Party, mentioned as a possible Senate candidate before the Fast and Furious scandal. Burke had been a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano before taking the U.S. Attorney job. He had previously served as Napolitano's chief of staff when she was governor of Arizona.

Tim Griffin was appointed interim U.S. Attorney by then-U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in December 2006 after the forced resignation of Bud Cummins. Griffin resigned in June 2007 after disclosures suggested then-Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove may have orchestrated Cumminsâ€™s ouster to make way for Griffin. Griffin had been an aide to Rove in the White House and had also worked at the Republican National Committee. Jane Duke, who had been First Assistant U.S. Attorney, has led the office since December 2007. Griffin is the Republican nominee for the second congressional district. Jane Duke has been the district's U.S. Attorney since December 2007.

Christopher R. Thyer has been a partner at Stanley & Thyer, P.A., since 2007. Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor in 2009 recommended Michael D. Barnes, a civil litigation specialist at Little Rock, Ark. law firm Wright, Lindsey & Jennings; Christopher R. Thyer, a trial lawyer with Stanley & Thyer in Jonesboro, Ark.; and Edward O. Walker, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas. Barnes was reportedly the leading candidate for a long time, but in August 2010 - with no movement on the nomination - Barnes issued a statement withdrawing from consideration. The Little Rock-based office hasn't had a Senate-approved head since 2006, when Bud Cummins was ousted in the Bush administration's U.S. Attorney firings.

Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor recommended William Conner Eldridge, Jr., the young CEO of Summit Bank in Arkadelphia, back in May 2009. He candidacy took a political detour before President Obama nominated him 16 months later, in September 2010. In between, someone who wasn't recommended by the senators - a black state prosecutor named Carlton Jones - emerged as the leading candidate. Then the chief deputy prosecutor in Arkansasâ€™s Miller and Lafayette counties, Jones had instead been recommended as a federal judge, although Jones had desired the U.S. Attorney appointment. But his name then appeared back in play for the U.S. Attorney job, apparently to satisfy restive black community leaders in Arkansas. Jones eventually got tired of waiting for action on his candidacy and withdrew from consideration in February 2010 after meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington. Eldridge, 31, apparently used the nominating delay to get some prosecuting experience, resigning from the bank in 2009 to be a Special Deputy Prosecutor for the Prosecuting Attorneyâ€™s Office of Clark County. Also recommended by the Arkansas senators in 2009 were Shawn J. Johnson, an assistant attorney general in the Arkansas attorney generalâ€™s office; and Christopher D. Plumlee, chief of the criminal section in the Western District of Arkansas.

McGregor W. Scott served as U.S. Attorney from 2003 until January 2009, when he resigned in order to join Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliff in Sacramento, Calif. He has been mentioned as a possible candidate for state attorney general.

John Walsh was a partner at Hill & Robbins PC. Stephanie Villafuerte, the deputy chief of staff to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) for community outreach and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, was the first nominee. However, after coming under fire for reportedly asking employees of the Denver district attorney's office to access a restricted government database in connection with the 2006 gubernatorial campaign, she withdrew her nomination on Dec. 14, 2009, because of the "political attacks" surrounding her role in the 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

David Fein was a partner in the law firm Wiggin & Dana, a former associate counsel to President Bill Clinton and a former federal prosecutor in New Yorkâ€™s Southern District. Fein was selected over Nora Dannehy, the prosecutor investigating the U.S. Attorney firings. She has been a prosecutor since 1991, specializing in white collar and public corruption cases. In April 2008, Dannehy was named acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut â€” the first woman to hold the job.

Jeffrey A. Taylor was originally appointed as interim U.S. Attorney by then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in September 2006 and was later appointed by a court. He was nominated for the post by President George W. Bush in February 2007, but Bush withdrew his nomination in September 2008. He previously worked for Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Gonzales and former Attorney General John Ashcroft. He resigned on May 29, 2009 and is now leading the fraud.

Ronald C. Machen Jr. was a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. He was a member of the firmâ€™s Litigation/Controversy Department and Investigations and Criminal Litigation Practice Group. Machen was a federal prosecutor in the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office from 1997 to 2001, working in the fraud and public corruption section and the homicide section.

Pamela C. Marsh was a lawyer at the Tallahassee, Fla. office of the Akerman Senterfitt law firm, where she focused on white-collar criminal defense and government investigations. Marsh previously served as a Middle District of Florida Assistant U.S. Attorney and as a clerk to U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals Jane R. Roth.

Frank Maxwell Wood was U.S. Attorney from 2001 until July 31, 2009. After resigning, he announced his candidacy for Georgia attorney general. G.F. Pete Peterman III was the acting U.S. Attorney from 2009 until October 2010.

Michael Moore was a Georgia state senator and lawyer in Houston County, Ga. His nomination was stalled in the Senate for about a year. There was also an odd lag time between Moore's nomination and his filing of his Senate questionnaire containing background and financial information. Finally, on Sept. 16, 2010, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved his nomination.

U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates had been an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the office since 1989. In 2009, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) contacted the White House to try and get Yates' name taken off the short list for U.S. Attorney. Although her name was temporarily removed from the list, she was added back on this summer.

Edmund A. Booth was confirmed by the Senate as U.S. Attorney in 2007 after leading the office as an interim and acting U.S. Attorney since 2001. He resigned Sept. 3, 2009, to rejoin the private sector.

James Lewis led Civil Division in the Central District of Illinois U.S. Attorney's Office for two decades. He was a Justice Department Civil Division trial attorney and civil rights lawyer in Mississippi before joining the Central District.

Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001 and will continue to serve under President Obama as he pursues the politically sensitive prosecution of former Illinois Gov. Rod. Blagojevich (D) for corruption. Fitzgerald oversaw the prosecution of Vice President Dick Cheneyâ€™s chief of staff I. Lewis â€œScooterâ€ Libby for helping leak the name of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame. Fitzgerald also worked as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and has experience prosecuting terrorism cases.

Stephen Wigginton was with Belleville, Ill., firm Weilmuenster & Wigginton from 2000 to 2010. He also spent eight years as a litigator at other law firms. He also served as a criminal prosecutor in the Circuit Attorneyâ€™s Office in St. Louis.

Susan W. Brooks became the district's head prosecutor in 2001. She held the position until 2007, when she resigned to become general counsel and senior vice president of workforce and economic development at Ivy Tech Community College. Timothy M. Morrison then served as U.S. Attorney from 2007 until October 2010.

Matt Dummermuth was nominated by President George W. Bush in December 2007, but he was never confirmed by the Senate and remains interim U.S. Attorney. He was never passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee because he did not answer all of the committee's written questions. The resignation of his predecessor, Charles W. Larson, was not considered politically motivated, although Dummermuth had strong ties to the Bush administration. Dummermuth resigned Nov.24, 2009.

Stephanie Rose was the deputy criminal chief for the Northern District of Iowa. She has served as a law clerk, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and Assistant U.S. Attorney since coming to the Northern District of Iowa in 1996. She was recommended by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.) recommended that Overland Park, Kan., attorney Barry Grissom be the stateâ€™s next top federal prosecutor. Grissom, who has a private law practice specializing in civil litigation with a focus on employment discrimination, was a legal adviser to Moore during his first two congressional races.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) recommended that Letten be reappointed to the New Orleans-based U.S. Attorney post. Letten, a Republican, had come under fire from African American leaders for his handling of civil rights and Hurricane Katrina-related prosecutions. Landrieu was under pressure from Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) to recommend Letten's reappointment. But in 2012 an online commenting scandal inside Letten's abruptly ended his 11-year run as U.S. Attorney. First Assistant Jan Mann and AUSA Sal Perricone were revealed to have been leaving caustic, derogatory remarks anonymously on the New Orleans Times Picayune webiste about cases pending before the office. Mann hid behind the online handle "eweman" and Perricone uses several handles, including "HenryLMencken1951."

Former U.S. Rep. Don Cazayoux (D) was defeated for re-election by Republican Bill Cassidy last year, six months after he won a special election that was heralded as a sign of Democratic strength in the South. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) recommended him to the White House on May 19.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley has worked in the Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, Lafayette and Lake Charles Division of the Western District of Louisiana for 13 years. She was previously the acting deputy chief of the office's criminal division. Finley is also a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserves.

Paula Silsby was recommended to become the district head prosecutor by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) in 2001. However, the White House never sent her nomination to the Senate. Instead, Attorney General John Ashcroft named her interim U.S. Attorney in September 2001. She was one of the U.S. Attorneys considered for dismissal by the Bush administration.

George W. Bush holdover Rod J. Rosenstein remains on the job with the tacit support of Maryland's Democratic senators. Bush nominated him as U.S. Attorney in 2005, and he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. Bush later nominated Rosenstein to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. However his nomination was blocked by Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D) and Benjamin Cardin (D) who said Rosenstein did not have strong enough ties to Maryland. His nomination lapsed at the end of the 110th Congress. Cardin and Mikulski have said they support Rosenstein as U.S. Attorney.

Although it appears Rosenstein is staying in the job, names that were mentioned in 2009 as Democratic replacements for him included Stuart O. Simms, a partner at Brown, Goldstein & Levy who also served an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Maryland; W. Warren Hamel a partner at Venable and an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Maryland from 1990 to 2002: and Jane F. Barrett, the director of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Maryland. She is also a former Assistant U.S. Attorney. Other names that were once mentioned as possible nominees: Zuckerman Spaeder partner Gregg L. Bernstein, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Maryland from 1987 to 1991 and Paul M. Tiao, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Maryland.

Patrick A. Miles Jr. was nominated on March 29, 2012 after the previous candidate for the job, Scott Bowen, the state lottery commissioner, failed to win action in the Senate. Bowen is a former district judge and was a founder and partner at Bowen, Distel & Haynes. His nomination was returned to the White House on Dec. 22, 2010. Bowen was also a special assistant attorney general for the Michigan Department of Transportation. Miles, a Democrat, lost a race for Michigan's 3rd congressional district in 2010.

Rachel Paulose was one of the most controversial and political of the Bush-appointed U.S. Attorneys. Then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales gave her the interim job in February 2006, at the age of 32. The Senate later confirmed her in December 2006. She resigned in November 2007 amid resignation threats from top prosecutors in Minneapolis who objected to her management style. Paulose was contacted by the House Judiciary Committee regarding the U.S. Attorney purge of 2007. Her predecessor, Tom Heffelfinger, was on a list of U.S. Attorneys slated for firing compiled by Kyle Sampson, Gonzales's chief of staff. Heffelfinger, however, resigned before the firings.

B. Todd Jones was the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota from 1998 to 2001. Most recently he was in private practice at Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi in Minneapolis. He was recommended by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D). His nomination was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 25. He was sworn in Aug. 13, 2009. Jones is the chair the Attorney General's Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys.

Felicia Adams was an Assistant U.S. Attorney from the Southern District of Mississippi. Christi McCoy was initially recommended for the job by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) McCoy is a criminal defense attorney in Oxford, Miss. She once worked at the law firm of Joey Langston -- who pleaded guilty to conspiring with trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs to bribe a judge. McCoy also represented former state auditor Steve Patterson, who pleaded guilty in another Scruggs-related judge bribery case.

Dunn Lampton led the office from 2001 to 2009. During his tenure, Lampton prosecuted state supreme court Justice Oliver Diaz for bribery in 2005 and then Diaz and his wife, Jennifer, for tax evasion in 2006. Diaz and his wife were acquitted of all charges and subsequently filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service about the unauthorized disclosure of his tax records. Lampton resigned months later, which he said was unrelated to the complaint. Lampton was recommended for removal from his position as part of the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys. The district's current U.S. Attorney is Don Burkhalter will retire next month and John M. Dowdy Jr. was appointed to replace him.

Gregory K. Davis was a partner at Davis, Gross & Williams PLLC in Jackson, Miss. He was nominated on June 29, 2011. He was confirmed on March 29, 2012 with the backing of Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) Don Burkhalter and John Dowdy led the office for the nearly three-year period between Davis's confirmation and the resignation of Dunn Lampton in 2009. Lampton died in 2011.

Beth Phillips had served an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. Before joining the office, she was an attorney in the Leawood, Mo., law firm Bartimus, Frickleton, Robertson & Gorny. From 1997 to 2001, Phillips served as an assistant prosecutor in Jackson County, Kan.

Bill Mercer was appointed in 2001. He wore two hats at the Justice Department, serving as U.S. Attorney and as acting Associate Attorney General from September 2006 to June 2007. At DOJ headquarters, he assisted in the politicized firings of other U.S. Attorneys. A federal judge and leading Democrats in Montana had called for his resignation.

Deborah Gilg was a self-employed Ogallala, Neb., attorney. She previously served as the Keith County, Neb., attorney from 1987 to 2002. She was recommended by Sen. Ben Nelson (D). She was sworn in Oct. 1, 2009.

Daniel Bogden served as the Nevada U.S. Attorney from 2001 until 2007, when he was forced to resign in the U.S. Attorney purge. He most recently was an attorney at McDonald, Carano and Wilson in Reno, Nev. He was recommended by Sen. Harry Reid (D). He was sworn in Oct. 1, 2009.

Christopher J. Christie was appointed by President Bush in 2002 and resigned in December 2008 in order to run for governor as a Republican. He won the November election and took office Jan. 19. Christie was criticized for his decision to give a multimillion dollar no-bid contract to former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroftâ€™s consulting firm, The Ashcroft Group, to supervise a New Jersey court settlement. The House Judiciary Committee investigated the contract, and the Justice Department changed its policies on court observers.

Paul Fishman was a white-collar criminal attorney at Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman in New York. He previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and as First Assistant Attorney. He also was a senior adviser to then-Attorney General Janet Reno from 1994 to 1997. He was recommended by Democratic Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez.

Preet Bharara was Sen. Charles Schumerâ€™s (D-N.Y.) chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2005 until August 2009. He helped lead the panelâ€™s investigation into the firings of U.S. Attorneys by the Bush administration. Bharara also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he was known for his prosecutions of mobsters and gang members. SDNY is considered the most prestigious of the U.S. Attorney posts. He was sworn in Aug. 13, 2009

William J. Hochul Jr. was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of New York. A 2008 Justice Department Inspector General report found the George W. Bush administration declined to promote the experienced counter-terrorism prosecutor because of his wifeâ€™s affiliation with the Democratic Party. Under the direction of then-DOJ White House liaison Monica Goodling, a less experienced Republican was promoted over Hochul.

Bush holdover George E. B. Holding is overseeing federal probes of two prominent Democrats: former Gov. Mike Easley and two-time presidential candidate, ex-Sen. John Edwards. He has been U.S. Attorney since 2006.

Ripley Rand has served as a superior court judge in Raleigh, N.C., since 2002. Rand was an assistant district attorney in the Tenth Prosecutorial District of North Carolina directing the domestic violence unit and participating on the dangerous offenders task force.

Gretchen Shappert was appointed by President Bush in 2004 and stepped down from her post in March 2009 to accept a job at Justice Department headquarters. Her name was on a list of U.S. Attorneys the White House considered firing in 2007. But Shappert was reportedly protected by DOJâ€™s White House liaison, Monica Goodling.

Anne Tompkins was a partner at Alston and Bird. Tompkins was one of four Assistant U.S. Attorneys who were part of the initial Iraqi Regime Crimes Liason Office in Baghdad, Iraq, under the Office of the Deputy Attorney General.

Steve Dettelbach was a white-collar criminal attorney at Baker and Hostetler in Cleveland. He previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Ohio and Maryland. He also was a prosecutor at Justice Department headquarters.

Carter Stewart was an attorney at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease in Columbus, Ohio. From 2003 to 2005, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of California. He was sworn in on Sept. 30, 2009.

Mark Green was a solo practitioner in Muskogee, Okla. He also spent time as an alternate judge to the City of Muskogee, a public defender and Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

David E. O'Meilia resigned June 28, 2009 to join the Richards & Connor law firm in Tulsa, Okla. He became U.S. Attorney in 2001. The office is now led byThomas Scott Woodward, who was appointed by a federal judge after Meilia's departure. President Barack Obama has made no nomination for this post.

Amanda Marshall is a child advocacy attorney at the Oregon Department of Justice who may have been the first U.S. Attorney candidate to conduct a Facebook campaign for the job. She previously served as an assistant state attorney general. From 1996 to 2001, Marshall served as a deputy district attorney for Coos County, Ore. Her nomination was returned to the White House at the end of 2010 after the Senate failed to take action. The White House re-nominated her on March 2, 2011. The full Senate confirmed her on Sept. 26, 2011.

Patrick L. Meehan announced his resignation in July 2008. He was exploring a bid for the Republican nomination for governor of Pennsylvania. But he's now the Republican nominee for the House seat being vacated by Rep. Joe Sestak (D), who beat party-switching Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary.

Zane D. Memeger was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the district for 11 years before leaving in 2006 to join the law firm Morgan Lewis, where he is now a partner. His practice focuses on corporate and white collar crime. While in the U.S. Attorney's office Memeger served on the organized crime strike force. He was on the team that successfully prosecuted mobster Joey Merlino and Imam Shamsud-din Ali on racketeering charges.

Mary Beth Buchanan was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001. During her tenure, she also served as the director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys from 2004 to 2005. She lost the Republication nomination for the 4th congressional district in Pennsylvania, currently represented by Rep. Jason Altmire (D).

George W. Bush holder Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez was nominated in January 2007 and passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but she was never voted on by the full Senate. She was criticized at the time for spearheading a politically-charged investigation into the Democratic governor of Puerto Rico.

John Malcom Bales was the interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas from 2009 until his Senate confirmation on Sept. 26, 2011. His nomination on June 28, 2011 came after Rep. Lloyd Doggett, an Austin Democrat, lost a battle with the state's two Republican senators for sway with the White House over Texas U.S. Attorney nominations. In the end, the recommendations of GOP Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchinson for all four Texas U.S. Attorney jobs were accepted and approved by the Senate. Bales was Obama's second nominee for the post. John B. Stevens Jr. a judge in the Jefferson County Criminal District Court in Texas, was the president's first nominee. He was a consensus candidate of the Texas senators and Doggett. However, after no movement on the nomination, Stevens withdrew from consideration on April 22, 2010, citing the best interests of his family.

Sarah Saldana is an Assistant U.S. Attorney who heads the fraud and public corruption division in the Dallas-based Northern District. She was recommended by Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison and nominated by the White House on June 28, 2011.See the John Bales description above for background on the partisan fight in Texas over the U.S. Attorney nominations.

Kenneth Magidson is Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Houston-based office and heads the organized crime drug enforcement task force for the Southwest region. He was recommended by Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison after Texas House Democrats led by Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin lost a fight to have the Obama administration accept their recommendations. Magidson was nominated on June 28, 2011 and confirmed in September 2011.

Johnny K. Sutton resigned in April 2009 after nearly eight years as U.S. Attorney. He was criticized for his successful prosecution of two Border Patrol agents who shot an unarmed alleged drug smuggler in the back. Sutton is a Texas-based law partner of the Ashcroft Group. The district's current U.S. Attorney is John E. Murphy.

Robert Pitman has been a magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas since 2003. He was recommended by Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison and nominated by the White House on June 28, 2011. He is the first openly gay U.S. Attorney in Texas.

Brett Tolman was the George W. Bush administration's U.S. Attorney for Utah from 2006 to the end of 2009. Tolman's First Assistant, Carlie Christensen, has been running the office since Tolman's departure in January 2010.

President Barack Obama's nomination of David B. Barlow, an aide to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah,) a Tea Party favorite, astonished Democrats. But the nomination was in keeping with the Obama White House's apparent political calculus that it suffers little by disappointing its own party on U.S. Attorney nominations and gains more by placating Republicans in states, like Utah and Texas, where the GOP holds both Senate seats. Also astonishing: Barlow nomination comes as Obama's re-election campaign is already in swing. In other words, filling the office is an apparently low priority of the White House. The history of the search for a nominee is long. Utah AUSA David Schwendiman dropped out of consideration in July 2010 as his nomination stalled. Schwendiman was recommended to Obama by Utah Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson. Schwendiman had previously served overseas as an international prosecutor in the Special Department for War Crimes of the Prosecutorâ€™s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Utah Democrats were reportedly unhappy when news later surfaced that the White House was considering nominating a Republican, Scott Burns, former deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in the George W. Bush administration. Brent Baker, a former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer, was also under consideration for the nomination. In January 2011 he withdrew his name due to political delays. Once Barlow was nominated on Aug. 2, 2011, he was swiftly confirmed.

Tristram J. Coffin was a white-collar criminal attorney at Paul Frank + Collins in Burlington, Vt. He previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont. He was sworn in Aug. 13, 2009.

Ronald W. Sharpe had served as the district's interim U.S. Attorney from 2009 to 2011. Before moving to the Virgin Islands, Sharpe worked in the U.S. Attorney's office in the District of Columbia from 1995 to 2008, first as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and then as First Assistant U.S. Attorney. Prior to entering the public sector Sharpe was an associate at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue (now Jones Day) from 1991 to 1995.

Neil MacBride was an associate deputy attorney general. Previously, he was the vice president of legal affairs at Business Software Alliance in Washington, D.C. where he directed efforts against Internet piracy. He also worked as the staff director and chief counsel for then-Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) from 2001 to 2005, and was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for D.C. from 1996 to 2001.

Timothy Heaphy was an attorney with McGuireWoods in Richmond, Va. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia from 2003 to 2005 and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in D.C. from 1994 to 2003.

James A. McDevitt served as U.S. Attorney from November 2001 to October 2010. Before becoming the district's head prosecutor, he was in private practice. He also has worked as an Assistant Attorney General and Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of Washington under former Attorney General Slade Gordon.

Jeffrey C. Sullivan has been the interim U.S. Attorney since John McKay was fired in the 2006 U.S. Attorney purge. Sullivan previously served as chief of the districtâ€™s criminal division and as a Yakima County, Wash., prosecutor.

U.S. Attorney Sharon L. Potter was named to the position in 2006. Before heading the office, she worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District beginning in 1992. In September 2009, she joined the law firm Spilman, Thomas & Battle.

William Ihlenfeld II was a partner with Ihlenfeld Law Office, PLLC in Wheeling, W.Va. He also served as the assistant prosecuting attorney for Brooke County, W.Va., in the northern panhandle region of the state. From 1997 to 2007, he was an assistant prosecuting attorney and the chief assistant prosecutor for Ohio County, which is also located in the northern panhandle and includes Wheeling.

Steven Biskupic was appointed U.S. Attorney in May 2002. In 2007, Biskupic and his office came under review by congressional investigators looking into the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys. He resigned in January 2009 to join the Milwaukee law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich as a litigator.